Campaigns

The Bornfree Art School has been campaigning on various social issues. Mainly we focus on children's issues and peace.

Children

Show Red Card to Child Labour

is a campaign that we undertook during the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.We kicked off on the 12th June 2010 and campaigned till 13th July, which was the final match day of the Cup. We organized the football matches for school children and college students. For the final event, we had more than 20 matches. 50 students came from Sri Lanka to join our movement. We also organized the cultural festival at the end of the day and screened the final match between Spain and the Holland. Details more. Show Red Card on YouTube

History Expedition

History Expedition was a proof of child labour that has been existing in Karnataka, Goa, and Tamil Nadu. 350,000 photographs were considered so-to-be called a suo-moto case, which took us to the Parliament. We had the executive meeting with the top of the United Nations officers and with Mr. Oscar Fernandez, then the Minister for Labour, Government of India. We also had a meeting with Dr. Shantha Sinha, who is a chairperson of the National Committee of Child Rights. Read more.See Photos.

Education

Dattu Yojane is an educational campaign of the Bornfree in a collaboration with the Government of Karnataka.The Bornfree has adopted the government schools under the Dattu Yojane where we strive to bring up a quality education. We are working at the neighboring schools to teach subjects and arts.

Normadic Bornfree School is where we teach arts to children of migrant workers from Rajasthan. More than 100 families have settled with camels and are doing odd jobs. We are teaching drama and dance.

Peace

Peacebycycle

is an exclusive bycycle trip with 35 members of the Bornfree in order to bridge India and Pakistan for its friendship and peace. We have bycycled 3,000kms from Bangalore to the Wagha Border across eight States for 30 days in 2008.

Our goals are: 1) To raise awareness of child suffering and injustice and promote a campaign against child labour. 2) Establish peace and friendship with the people of Pakistan by encouraging opportunities for both nations to continue moving towards normalization and increase spending on domestic issues rather than on bilateral conflict. 3) Promote cycling as the most environmentally friendly, economic and fun mode of transport to help reduce India’s spiraling carbon output and reduce greenhouse effects.

We also collected 7000 letters of love from children of India to children of Pakistan. We had collected them in different cities and villages. At the border, over a hundred kids from Lahore were awaiting us, however, we weren't granted a visa. Read children's letters.

On the way, we were able to liberate three girl children of Dharwad, Karnataka. They came along with and stayed for next six months. We had a boy called Purshotom, who fled form Pune to Bangalore and became a street child. When we came to Pune, we identified his family and made the family reunion possible. Read more.View exciting photos!

World's Largest Love Letter has been created by John Devaraj and it is massive! Bigger than a football field, it measures 240 by 360 feet (73 by 110 meters). It's so big that we actually had trouble fitting it into the enormous Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium and had to leave the border pieces off.The text of the letter is written in Urdu, English and Hindi, and reads; Dear Children of Pakistan, Let's join hearts in friendship. Together we can make a better world.-The Children of India. See Photos.

Peace Museum NEW!!!

The Bornfree started a new concept of the Peace Museum in the city of Bangalore.

International

Japan Tour

The Bornfree had a one-month tour of the Heiwa Zou Resha in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Fukuoka, Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo in August 2011. Six members represented the peace ceremony of the 66th year of Atomic-Bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We also had conducted dance-theater workshops for over 500 children of Japan as well as lectured for the Japanese people. We were able to make an impact on young people's thinking by spreading the idea of peace and Kempo Kyujo ( Article 9 ). Read more.

The Global Peace Article 9 Conference

The Bornfree represented India the Article 9 International Peace Conference in Tokyo in 2008. Bornfree members performed as well as lectured on the theme of arts and children. We also visited Hiroshima and met a survivor, Ms. Emiko Okada who had shared her horrific a-bomb experiences. John Devaraj also contributed his large canvas painting to the Hiroshima Peace Cultural Centre and Mr. Leeper Steve of its chairperson has received it. Read more.

Non-Violent Communication~Germany

Three members participated the training of non-violent communication in Rupholding, Germany in 2010.

It was a seven-day workshop with 50 people from the different countries. All of them are working with street children in their homes and they came to share their experiences and difficulties. Of course, we have performed a number of dance and theatre pieces for them as well as presented the work of Bornfree. We were trained in resolving problems by a technique of the Restorative Circle. Read more.